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j-a-nuary · 1 year

Text

Carrier

Almost Normal

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Stray Kids Urban fantasy AU (feat. Ateez from time to time) | A “carrier service” exists, seemingly only to get people (usually women) home safe after the trains stop running.

Heavy on bad boys with hearts of… some kind of shiny metal, probably.

Warnings: nothing too wild in this chapter. Some medical-ish stuff (wound description), Vasilisa is ornery with Hyunjin.

=====

"There you are! Goodness,” Tempawan's coworker, Sunmi, openly gawked at her neck, "what on earth happened to you?"

Tempawan grimaced.

"It's going to sound crazy."

Sunmi gave her a sarcastic look, "it already looks crazy."

She wasn't wrong. The bite mark on her shoulder was being stubborn. Despite a lack of infection, it was refusing to simply scab over and get on with healing. While she wasn't actively bleeding anymore, it was still gross - a disgusting raw mess that was always slightly moist. So Tempawan was left with packing gauze onto it, holding it in place with ribbon-like medical tape.

"Fair enough," Tempawan sighed, "I got attacked by a dog."

Sunmi's eyes widened in shock.

"How on earth? What happened?"

"I don't really remember," Tempawan shrugged, "I went out on Wednesday night and then… woke up in a hospital room on Thursday."

"Jeezy creezy," Sunmi muttered, "well, director Kang was looking for you yesterday."

"I think this," she gestured towards the bandage that was visible under the edge of her collar, "will give me an excuse for missing a day or two of work."

"Not really his job," Sunmi shrugged, then looked a little embarrassed.

"Can," she gave Tempawan a secretive smile, "can I see?"

Tempawan rolled her eyes, but leaned forward to indulge her friend. She winced slightly as she peeled back a strip of tape, "I'll warn you, it's kind of gross."

With an encouraging nod from Sunmi, she shook her head and slowly revealed the glossy puncture marks.

Sunmi gasped, physically recoiling.

"Holy…"

"Yeah," Tempawan pulled her foundation cushion out of her bag. She flipped it open, using the mirror to check the wound. "Like I said: gross."

"No kidding. Does it still hurt?"

"Not really," she started re-securing her bandage, "but that's only because the doctor gave me some medicine. It's worse when I sleep."

Satisfied with her gauze placement, Tempawan clicked shut the compact. She quickly readjusted her top so it didn't tug against the patch.

"Well," she stood, resigning herself to her fate, "I guess I should go see the director. If you don’t hear from me, I've been fired and you should come get me from the bar."

=====

"Director Kang?"

She cautiously peeked around the door to the director's office. Everyone knew that if it was propped open, they were free to enter. But she didn't particularly want to enter. Even though her absence was undeniably excusable, even with the proof still leaking into bandages on her neck, she was convinced she was going to be in trouble.

"Is that you Miss Shim?"

Kang Seungyoon didn't look up from his computer. His fingers were flying across his keyboard with an urgency that Tempawan recognized as just gotta finish this email.

"Yes sir."

He vaguely nodded towards the seat in front of his desk, eyes still glued to his screen, "take a seat. This will just be a second."

Tempawan stiffly dipped into the chair. It was probably comfortable when you weren't nervous, but she was trying to be on her best behavior.

The room was silent, save for the muted taps of the director's fingers on his keyboard. Finally, the tap-tap-tap was punctuated by a click from the mouse.

"Alright," he leaned his head back, rolling his neck and shoulders, "sorry about that. It was somewhat urgent."

"Not a problem sir."

"Now then, I wanted to che-"

Tempawan’s eyes had strayed to her own fingers as she waited, but the abrupt way the director cut off his own words alerted her to the fact that he must have finally looked at her.

Like so many things that one would hope others wouldn't notice, the bandage on her neck appeared exigent. Well, perhaps not the bandage itself. The accompanying bruising however seemed to trigger empathy, even in strangers… such as the barista that handed her coffee over this morning.

Director Kang's reaction did not inspire her to meet his gaze, but she couldn't so blatantly avoid it without coming across as rude. Or would he go easier on her if she played up the "traumatizing event" angle?

Her decision was made for her when she heard the unmistakable sounds of the director standing up and moving.

She looked up and saw him cross the office to open the door.

"Come. We'll have the clinic staff take a look at it."

He stood by the door expectantly.

Tempawan hesitated. She wasn't sure exactly why, but she was gripped with the idea that she might get pulled from the trial. And if she got pulled, that probably meant that Dhia would get pulled as well. And if Dhia got pulled, she'd have to start over with a new fertility clinic. One that she'd have to pay for, rather than getting paid by.

"Miss Shim?"

She shook her head, finally standing up.

"Sorry," she bowed quickly, "I got a little lost in thought."

Director Kang took a step back into the office, letting the door close again.

"Is there an issue?"

He sounded sincere. As sincere as a professional could, anyway. He even looked sincere - a faint frown creasing his brow, but not reaching much further than that.

"It's just…" Tempawan licked her lips nervously, "it won't impact my eligibility, will it?"

The director's face relaxed slightly. He even allowed himself a small smile.

"You don't have to worry about that," he reassured her. "I just want to make sure my team's health is properly looked after."

=====

Working for a multinational corporation definitely had benefits. Working for one that was aggressively expanding its medical research divisions had even more.

Tempawan shivered slightly as a cool gel was applied to her wound. After a few minutes, the dull ache was nearly gone.

“This isn’t anything addictive, is it?”

“Not chemically or physically,” the clinician assured her, “just in the way that, say, your favorite food might be addictive.”

Tempawan frowned, trying to parse that sentence before deciding to be straightforward.

“So it’s not an opioid?”

The clinician laughed, shaking her head.

“Absolutely not. Regardless of addiction concerns, opiates aren’t nearly as effective as they’ve been advertised to be.” She shook her head, “they’re more effective at making patients lose lucidity than actually stopping pain.”

“Oh,” Tempawan nodded, not entirely sure if that was true or not. “Then what is this?”

“Marketing is still working on a name for it. We just call it The Slime,” the clinician laughed.

“I’m assuming since you’re laughing that everything is okay?” Director Kang asked from behind the privacy curtain.

The clinician shot Tempawan a smile that landed somewhere between embarrassed and conspiratorial. They had both forgotten the man behind the curtain.

"I think everything is all set," she spoke in a more professional tone now, "the hospital you went to did a good job."

=====

"Not to sound like some sort of drug dealer," Vasilisa hummed, "but I'm assuming if your ending your business with me that you've found a new supplier."

The witch stood over an electric rice cooker. Her familiar, a chubby fuzzy thing, was handing her vegetables to chop. Hyunjin nodded, before remembering that she had her back turned and starting to speak.

"Ye-"

"I see."

He hated it when they did that. He didn't know for sure, but he was pretty sure that the witch could see through her familiar's eyes. Or maybe they were connected telepathically. Either way, he hated it.

"It's not some shady donor scheme, is it?" She kept her back to him. The round rodent moved aside, scrabbling the unused ends of vegetable into the sink as the witch started on some cut of meat.

"No ma'am," Hyunjin murmured. "It's… ah…"

He paused, realizing that he didn't actually know where Chan and his company obtained their blood.

"It's a…?" Vasilisa prompted him to continue.

"It's through my new job."

The witch huffed slightly, but still didn't turn to face him. An uncomfortable silence fell as she worked the extraneous fat off the hunk of meat.

After plopping all of the ingredients into the rice cooker, she finally spoke again.

"That sounds like something one of those trafficking rings would say."

Hyunjin frowned. He had to admit, even if only to himself, that he didn't actually know what Bang Chan's source was.

"I don't think they'd do that. Their business seems to be somewhat based on keeping people safe."

He watched her hands go still. Her fingers twitched, the motion mimicked by her familiar. Were they talking - thinking? - about him?

Vasilisa turned on her heel, fixing a hard look on Hyunjin.

"Bang Chan isn't trying to use you due to your…" her nose crinkled in distaste, "past hobbies, is he?"